A wide variety of implantable heart monitors and therapy delivery devices have been developed including pacemakers, cardioverter/defibrillators, heart pumps, cardiomyostimulators, ischemia treatment devices, and drug delivery devices. Most of these cardiac systems include electrodes for sensing and sense amplifiers for recording and/or deriving sense event signals.
These devices typically utilize the sense event signals to detect problems with a patient's cardiac system and to delivery of the therapy. Prior art disclosures have been made suggesting methods for detecting cardiac conditions including:
TABLE 1CountryPatent NumberInventor/ApplicantIssue DateU.S.A.5,199,428Obel et al1993U.S.A.5,305,745Zacouto1994
All patents listed in Table 1 above are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their respective entireties. As those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate readily upon reading the Summary of the Invention, Detailed Description and Claims set forth below, many of the devices and methods disclosed in the patents of Table 1 may be modified advantageously by using the teachings of the present invention.